May, June - 2009

The Foster Family

Busy.
Dictionary.com would define it this way:
1. actively and attentively engaged in work or a pastime
2. not at leisure; otherwise engaged
3. full of or characterized by activity.

That sounds about right. May and June have been busy. Between finishing school, the kids finishing school, Jeremy's parents coming out for a (great) visit, our every-other-year staff retreat, our Foundations Conference starting off the summer conference season, our A Vision for Life school of discipleship getting started, some (wonderful) house guests (we love you Jenna and Shaena!), Christi started up a women's Bible study on Monday nights for (at least) the summer (feel free to pray for her for that), having four kids and two dogs... yeah, we think it is safe to say that we have been busy. Did we mention that Jeremy turned 34, his dad turned 60 (while they were here), and Kara turned 6 (SIX!!!) during that time? Busy indeed.

The kiddies

"So, what have you been doing with your time?" Did you not read that last paragraph? Just kidding - we've really been enjoying a great start to a summer that has so far been wonderful (do we sound like we're enjoying ourselves?). Our staff retreat in Austria was a wonderful time of renewing our vision to reach the world (see Psalm 2:8). Jeremy shared on the life of Jotham from 2Kings 15 at the staff retreat as he asked and explored the questions of whether we could be doing more for the Lord and if we could be doing a better job. The answer: it's possible!

As our annual Foundations Conference came to a close and our 300+ guests headed home, we truly were blessed to have had a wonderful time with our big extended family of missionaries and national church leaders from across Europe (and Asia).

A Vision for Life (AVFL) began right as Foundations came to a close and we already can tell that we have a great batch of students this summer. A little more than 20 young people that have come to seek "the Lord of hosts who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance" (Isaiah 28:29) and to "pursue the knowledge of the Lord" (Hosea 6:3).

Jeremy's parents came out for a visit and it was GREAT. We had so much fun with them and enjoyed just simply spending time together. No doubt they enjoyed spending time with 4/7ths of their grandkids - our kids loved spending time with them! Plus, they're good at spoiling us!

All in all, it really has been a great couple of months and we anticipate the rest of the summer (July here we come!) to be equally wonderful. We have a lot of work ahead of us (September and Jeremy's two classes will be here before we know it!), but it is all good work to do. Really, the summer season has more than its fair share of difficulties (not counting the heat, the mosquitos, the 150-200 guests on average every week, and the challenges that come with a staff of young volunteers that would sometimes just rather be at the pool). What's the expression? What doesn't kill you only prolongs the inevitable? Oh, no - that's not it. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. Well, summers make us stronger, that's for sure.

Jeremy and his mommy

Thanks so much for praying for us and for being patient with us and our "double newsletter" for May and June. Jeremy was thinking about it today and realized that in the last five years (we arrived back here in Europe in June of 2004), we have only done a "two-monther" one other time: June and July of 2006.

Talk to you soon!

Have a great summer.

Jeremy, Christi, Ian, Leah, Kara, and Mikayla